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This Buffalo Chicken Salad is a delicious restaurant-quality salad made with tender buffalo chicken, fresh vegetables, crumbled blue cheese, and a creamy homemade buttermilk ranch dressing. It is a show-stopping recipe that comes together in under 30 minutes, even if you opt to make the dressing and buffalo sauce from scratch!
The Best Buffalo Chicken Salad Recipe
From buffalo chicken tacos to buffalo chicken casserole, buffalo chicken pizza, and boneless buffalo wings, it's no secret that I love buffalo chicken. But my favorite? This Buffalo Chicken Salad, for so many reasons!
- Restaurant-Quality at Home. From the tender buffalo chicken to the creamy ranch dressing to the crisp greens, this buffalo chicken salad is hearty, spicy, creamy, fresh, and completely satisfying.
- Customizable. This recipe is an incredible starting point, but feel free to make it your own. Skip the celery, add extra chicken, or swap the ranch dressing for blue cheese dressing. Do what you like!
- Easy to Make. Even when starting with homemade buffalo sauce and ranch dressing, you can have this salad ready in under 30 minutes.
Now, let me share my favorite way to serve this salad. Instead of croutons, top it with oven-baked fries or air-fried potato cubes. They add a salty, crispy element that will make you swoon! You don't want to miss out on this recipe!
Happy Cooking! xo Kristen
Ingredients for Buffalo Chicken Salad
This Buffalo Chicken salad can be made from scratch, or you can opt for a few shortcuts to speed up the process. Use the following tips to make the best selection.
- Chicken: Start with boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs that have been cubed and tossed with flour, paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper before baking. Alternatively, take a shortcut and use leftover rotisserie chicken.
- Buffalo Sauce: Use store-bought or homemade buffalo sauce, which is made with hot sauce, honey, vinegar, garlic, and melted butter.
- Lettuce: I recommend a fresh, crisp lettuce such as hearts of romaine or iceberg.
- Veggies: Cucumbers, carrots, green onions, and celery are classic pairings to buffalo chicken. I also love to add sweet bell peppers and tomatoes. Feel free to mix and match the veggies as desired.
- Dressing: To dress the salad, opt for bleu cheese or ranch dressing. For homemade ranch dressing, you will need plain Greek yogurt (or mayonnaise), sour cream, buttermilk, lemon juice, and ranch seasoning mix.
- Blue Cheese Crumbles: I recommend serving this salad with blue cheese crumbles on the side, as blue cheese is somewhat of an acquired taste. That way, whoever likes it can add it to their salad, and those that don't care for blue cheese can leave it off.
How To Make Buffalo Chicken Salad
The following tips are provided to help you achieve perfect results. You will find the ingredient quantities and detailed instructions in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
- Prepare Ranch Dressing. Start by preparing the ranch dressing so it has time to chill and develop flavor. Simply mix the ingredients, cover, and refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Prepare Chicken. Cut chicken into 1-inch cubes and toss in a flour mixture of garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper. Shake off excess and place on a greased baking sheet.
- Bake Chicken. Bake the chicken for 12 minutes, flipping once after 6 minutes.
Using Leftover Cooked Chicken?
If starting with leftover cooked chicken, skip steps 2 and 3 and simply dice or shred the chicken before tossing it with buffalo sauce.
- Prepare Buffalo Sauce. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together hot sauce, melted butter, and honey. Alternatively, pour your favorite prepared buffalo sauce into a large bowl.
- Toss Chicken with Buffalo Sauce. Add the baked seasoned chicken (or leftover cooked chicken) to the buffalo sauce and gently toss to evenly coat the chicken.
- Assemble Salad Base. In a large serving bowl, toss together the romaine, red cabbage, carrots, celery, peppers, and green onions.
Time Saving Tip
To maximize your time, prep the veggies while the chicken is baking.
- Serve. Right before serving, add the prepared buffalo chicken and tomatoes. Serve with ranch dressing and crumbled bleu cheese on the side.
Recipe Modifications
- Gluten-Free/Low-Carb: Season the raw chicken with paprika, garlic powder, salt, and pepper, omitting the flour from the recipe.
- Optional Additions: Shredded or cubed cheddar cheese, crumbled oven baked bacon, oven-baked fries, and/or air fryer crispy potatoes all make delicious additions.
- Serve as a Wrap: Add the salad to a large flour tortilla for a hearty wrap perfect for an on-the-go meal or picnic lunch.
More Delicious Chicken Salad Recipes
Did you make this recipe?
If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a comment with a 5-star review at the bottom of the post. Thank you!
Buffalo Chicken Salad
Video
Ingredients
For the Buffalo Chicken
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ cup hot sauce, like Frank's Red Hot
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
For the Salad
- 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped
- ½ cup shredded red cabbage, optional
- 2 large carrots, peeled and shredded
- 1 medium English cucumber, diced
- 2 stalks celery, thinly sliced
- 2 green onions, thinly sliced
- 1 medium red or yellow bell pepper, diced
- 1 pint cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
- ⅓ cup crumbled blue cheese, optional
For the Ranch Dressing
- ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt, or mayonnaise
- ¼ cup sour cream
- 1 tablespoon ranch seasoning
- ¼ cup buttermilk, or regular milk
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
Instructions
Ranch Dressing
- In a small mixing bowl, combine ¼ cup plain Greek yogurt, ¼ cup sour cream, 1 tablespoon ranch seasoning, ¼ cup buttermilk, and 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice together until well combined. Cover and refrigerate while you are preparing the remaining ingredients.
Buffalo Chicken
- Preheat the oven to 400℉ (200℃). Spray a rimmed sheet pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- In a shallow dish, whisk together the ¼ cup all-purpose flour, 1 teaspoon paprika, 1 teaspoon garlic powder, ½ teaspoon kosher salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.
- Cube 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts into 1-inch pieces and add to the flour mixture and toss to coat the chicken. Shake off the excess flour from the chicken and place the seasoned chicken onto the greased pan.
- Bake for 6 minutes, flip the chicken, and return to the oven and bake for 4-6 minutes, or until the chicken reaches 165℉ (74℃), or the juices run clear.
- While the chicken is baking, mix together the ¼ cup hot sauce, 1 tablespoon honey, and 1 tablespoon unsalted butter (melted) together in a small bowl.
- Once the chicken has baked, add the baked chicken to the hot sauce mixture and toss to evenly coat.
For the Salad
- Toss together the romaine, red cabbage, carrots, celery, celery, peppers, and green onions together in a serving dish.
- Remove the chicken from the hot sauce mixture and add to the salad base.
- Top the salad with grape tomatoes, crumbled bleu cheese, and drizzle with the prepared ranch dressing. Serve immediately.
Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
This post was originally shared in 2022 and updated in 2025.
Delicious! Maybe next time I'll add a smidge more honey to the dressing for my kids who said it was a little too hot for them. Man, I loved it though. Buffalo sauce, yum yum.
So happy to hear you enjoyed, Erica! I typically leave a few of the chicken strips plain after baking for my daughter. That way she won't complain it is too spicy. That is an idea too!
Happy Birthday Kristen,
I hope you had a wonderful day, and don’t mind getting older.
Thank you for sharing all of your favourites, we love this recipe!
Thanks so much Sami! I appreciate the birthday wishes and hearing you enjoy this salad.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! Hope you're having an awesome day!
Thanks, Paul! So glad you enjoy this Chicken Salad as well!
Happy Birthday!!🎉🎊🎂 Thank you for all the wonderful recipes! Hope your day is wonderful❤️
Thank you so much, Carol!
SUUUUPER good! We made this for a quick lunch today and now it's going to be a new favorite in our house. Thank you!
Awesome! This Buffalo Chicken is a favorite here as well!
This salad was just perfection! Loved the flavor of the chicken and the homemade creamy ranch dressing was fabulous. Leftovers tasted great as well!
Fabulous! I love hearing you enjoyed!
Wow! I knew I had to try this because my family loves anything buffalo chicken and it was even better than I imagined! So easy to make too. Thank you!
Awesome to hear! I am so happy you and your family enjoyed the salad 🙂